Funding Opportunities - December 12, 2025

For Grant Seekers and Fundraising Dispatch Subscribers

Your weekly one-stop-shop for grants, calls for proposals, requests for applications, and other programs published by funders like GIZ, Gates Foundation, AECF Norad, and many more.

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See below for the newest social impact funding opportunities in Africa and around the world.

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Rapid-Response, Advocacy & Protection Grants. Urgent Action Fund Africa.
• Strategic interventions that take advantage of opportunities to advance woman’s human rights.
• Both informal and formal women’s right organizations. Applications from non-registered collectives or groups are encouraged.
• Africa.
• Up to $20k grants.
• Applications accepted on a rolling basis.

Small-Scale Initiatives Programme (PPI 7). Programme de Petites Initiatives (PPI).
• To strengthen the contribution of civil society in Sub-Saharan African countries to biodiversity conservation while promoting the improvement of local populations’ living conditions through the funding of concrete, locally-based projects.
• Civil Society Organization (CSO), includes non-profit, NGOs as well as other associative structures (associations, local committees, groups, etc.)
• Central Africa: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, DRC, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Chad. West Africa: Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo.
• Up to €30k grants.
• December 18, 2025.

WeWork – Green and Decent Jobs for Youth. WeWork.
• Empowering youth-led businesses operating in the green and circular economy (CGE) by providing incubation, financing, and technical support.
• Young entrepreneur aged 18–35 who is building an early-stage business with a working prototype or clear proof of concept.
• Uganda.
• €60k investment pool.
• December 19, 2025.

Improving commercial forage seed/forage production for sustainable livestock sector improvement in Afar Region. RTI International.
• Improving mechanized commercial forage production and forage seed for sustainable livestock sector improvement and productivity
• A registered company/enterprise in Ethiopia.
• Ethiopia.
• Up to $55k grant.
• December 20, 2025.

UN Decade Youth Task Force Microgrant Program. UN Decade Youth Task Force.
• Supports restoration of Farmlands, Forests, Freshwater, Grasslands, Shrublands & Savannahs, Mountains, Oceans & Coasts, Peatlands, and Urban Areas through youth-led action.
• Youth-led organisations.
• All countries.
• A total of 10 microgrants of up to $1k each.
• December 31, 2025.

I&P Acceleration WE4A - Women Entrepreneurship for Africa Track 2. I&P.
• Aims to strengthen the development and resilience of high-potential women-led businesses, particularly in green and transition sectors.
• Annual turnover under €50k.
• Women entrepreneurs without access to credit.
• Uganda.
• An average loan amount of €22k combined with technical assistance.
• January 5, 2026.

I&P Acceleration WE4A - Women Entrepreneurship for Africa Track 3. I&P.
• Aims to strengthen the development and resilience of high-potential women-led businesses, particularly in green and transition sectors.
• Annual turnover comprised between €50k and €500k.
• Women entrepreneurs, growing ventures, strong traction.
• Reimbursable financing averaging €52k, at zero interest and without collateral, along with technical assistance.
• January 5, 2026.

Focused Projects Grant for Junior Investigators. American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation.
• Supports early career investigators dedicated to focusing their research on basic, translational, clinical, or population sleep and circadian science.
• Individuals with an MD, DO, DDS, DMD, DNP, DNSc, PharmD, PhD, or equivalent professional degree, within 10 years of their terminal degree, post-doctoral training, or clinical training.
• All countries.
• Up to $50k grant.
• January 5, 2026.

Tenth Call for Proposals for STEG Small Research Grants. Structural Transformation and Economic Growth (STEG).
• Broad systemic patterns and processes of structural transformation and growth for low- and middle-income countries. Cross-cutting issues: a) Gender, b) Climate change and the environment and c) Inequality and inclusion.
• Six research themes: 1) Data, Measurement, and Conceptual Framing, 2) Firms, Frictions and Spillovers, and Industrial Policy, 3) Labour, Home Production, and Structural Transformation at the Level of Households, 4) Agricultural Productivity and Sectoral Gaps, 5) Trade and Spatial Frictions and 6) The Role of the Public Sector. • PhD students.
• All countries. Applications that propose collaboration between researchers from lower- and higher-income countries are encouraged.
• Up to £25k grants.
• January 6, 2026.

The 2026 Seed Award. Prince Claus Fund.
• Emerging artists and cultural practitioners that add a new wave of ideas that addresses pressing social/political issues that are important within their local context.
• Emerging artists and cultural practitioners are in the early and exploratory stages of their career, within the initial 1 to 5 years of their professional career (excluding study years).
• OECD’s DAC listed countries.
• Up to €5k grant award.
• January 8, 2026.

School Leadership Research in Tanzania. Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA).
• Aim to strengthen the capacity of Tanzanian researchers and support the generation of highquality, context-specific, and policy-relevant evidence on school leadership in Tanzania.
• The lead applicant should ideally hold a PhD and be affiliated with a Tanzanian university, research institution, government department/ministry, or other recognised research or knowledge organisation. Collaboration with early-career researchers, include women researchers, are strongly encouraged.
• Tanzania.
• Up to $35k grants.
• January 11, 2026.

School Leadership Research in Africa. Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA).
• Research that is context-specific, policy-relevant, and capable of driving meaningful improvements in leadership preparation, professional development, and systemic transformation across African education systems.
• The lead applicant should ideally hold a PhD and be affiliated with an African university, research institution, government department/ministry, or other recognised research or knowledge organisation. Collaboration with early-career researchers, include women researchers, are strongly encouraged.
• Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Malawi.
• Up to $35k grants.
• January 11, 2026.

Case studies of innovation for scaling renewable energy. Fundación Avina.
• Projects that generate evidence-based insights on the strategies, partnerships, and enabling conditions that expand renewable energy technologies (RETs) uptake among low-income households, women, youth, farmers, small-scale entrepreneurs, indigenous groups, and other vulnerable communities.
• Universities or research centers with demonstrated capacity in applied research on energy transitions.
• Latin America & the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Up to $40k grant funding.
• January 12, 2026.

ExciteLab Hybrid Acceleration Program. ExciteLab.
• Startups in the field of robotics, sensors, IoT, semiconductors, and quantum.
• Early-stage startups.
• All countries.
• Up to €6k prize. Startups that establish a legal entity in Saxony, Germany can additionally receive up to €30k non-dilutive funding.
• January 13, 2026.

IJURR Foundation Writing-Up Grants. IJURR Foundation.
• Promotes urban and regional research, particularly encourages an understanding of the interconnection between social, economic and political processes and of the broader causes and effects of these processes.
• Post graduate (Doctorate) research students working within the field of urban and regional studies.
• Low and middle-income countries.
• Up to £6k grant.
• January 31, 2026.

Royal Society Africa Prize. The Royal Society.
• Research scientists based in Africa who are making an innovative contribution to the biological or physical sciences which contribute significantly to capacity building in Africa.
• Researchers at a senior stage of their research career.
• Africa.
• £15k grant and a personal gift of £2k.
• February 20, 2026.

Grants above $100k

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